The StreamYard Alternative Built for Shows With Guests and Fans

Most creators who outgrow StreamYard are not unhappy with its guest interviews. They want the audience to be part of the show. StreamYard is built around guests you invite. When you want viewers to call in, a producer to screen them, or fans to pay for access, you end up stitching other tools onto it.

• Audience call-ins. Turning viewers into on-air callers needs a queue and screening, not just an invite link.
• A producer seat. Talk shows run better when someone other than the host manages the next guest privately.
• Direct revenue. Tickets and paid fan access usually mean a separate ticketing site and a private stream link.
• Vertical audiences. TikTok and Instagram viewers want a 9:16 show, not a landscape feed letterboxed into a phone.

ShowUs and StreamYard are both browser studios with remote guests and multistreaming. The difference is the audience: ShowUs lets viewers raise their hand, wait in a screened queue, and come on air after a private check, and it sells tickets and paid fan access with a 95% revenue share. StreamYard focuses on invited guests.

For a live video podcast, StreamYard is the simplest way to stream a conversation, Riverside is the strongest for recording quality because it records each guest locally, and ShowUs is the one built for audience participation, with screened call-ins, tickets, and landscape plus vertical streams. Pick by whether your podcast lives mostly live or mostly in the edit.

If your podcast is a weekly recorded conversation that you edit heavily, Riverside's local recordings are hard to beat. If it is a live show where listeners call in, ShowUs is built for it. See how call-in shows and live podcasts run on ShowUs.

The day-to-day flow will feel familiar: guests join from a link, you arrange them in a layout, and you go live to your destinations. A few things work differently, and they are the reason to switch.

• Scenes instead of layout presets. Each scene is a canvas with layers, graphics, and motion, with a landscape and a portrait version. You stage the next scene, then TAKE it live with a transition.
• A real audio mixer. Every guest gets a fader, mute, meter, and processing, and a soundboard sits in the same desk.
• An audience that can raise its hand. Viewers on your event page can ask to join, and you decide who reaches the screen.
• Roles. A producer can run scenes, audio, and the queue from their own browser while you host.
• Revenue on the same page. Tickets, Super Chats, tips, and merch run inside the show, and you keep 95%.

StreamYard is still the better pick if you need a free plan, if your shows are simple interviews with invited guests, or if you rely on features ShowUs does not offer, such as StreamYard's webinar-style On-Air events. It is a mature, widely used product, and for a host who never brings viewers on air, its simplicity is a real advantage.

ShowUs is the better fit when the audience is part of the show: call-in segments, fan Q&As, ticketed episodes, or a producer running the desk while you host.

Switching takes an afternoon, not a migration. Your destinations, guests, and branding move over by hand, and none of them need to install anything.

1. 1Start a 7-day free trial on the ShowUs plans page.
2. 2Connect YouTube and Twitch with one click, and add TikTok, Instagram, Kick, or X with their stream keys. The setup guides cover each one.
3. 3Upload your logo, overlays, and backgrounds, and build your scenes in landscape and portrait.
4. 4Send your regular guests their ShowUs invite links, and run a test show with your producer.
5. 5Tell your audience how to call in: share the event page and ask them to raise their hand.